


Active Participation

by ryssabeth



Series: Novelesque Diary [4]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 13:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryssabeth/pseuds/ryssabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire is starting to feel more like a participant than a commentator</p>
            </blockquote>





	Active Participation

It’s not that he’s nervous, per se, not really, because he knows Cosette and Combeferre relatively well, and he’s seen everyone else at least once. The insects in his stomach, then, stem from something else. Stress, maybe, or the desire for a stiff drink. (It could be that he knows that anything this little group says will make him roll his eyes to the heavens and mutter under his breath and he’s pretty certain that saying things like that out loud isn’t as endearing as finding it within the pages of a book.)

“So what’s our objective for the month?” Bahorel asks—Grantaire knows him by the books on warfare, ancient and modern. “Because aren’t we still on probation for that—assembly—last month?” His face melts into something sheepish when Enjolras looks over at him with an arched brow.

“I think you mean riot,” Marius says carefully, “it was kind of a riot.” ( _“He’s not actually a member,”_ Jehan whispers—he checks out petry books twice monthly, as many as he can get away with, and both Grantaire and Cosette have admitted, to each other, that they up his limit, just a little.)   

“Wait, the riot outside the Student Government building?” Grantaire asks, looking up from his Classics notes, sketching a scene that isn’t going in any direction in particular, just blossoming as he listens—kind of.

“It wasn’t meant to be a riot,” Enjolras gives a pointed look to Bahorel who’s looking at the ceiling as if there is a particularly interesting stain there (there isn’t). “It was a protest.”

“That was _you_ though?” Grantaire laughs, earning amused looks from the others. “I was vomiting my insides up at the time, but I heard about it afterward. It’s a wonder the students who participated weren’t _expelled_.”

“I haven’t heard this story,” Cosette ventures, a sweet smile sitting upon her lips.

“There isn’t a story to tell,” and Grantaire is rewarded with a baleful look from Enjolras, his lips turned down in displeasure. “It wasn’t supposed to be a riot. Bahorel got a little too enthusiastic.”

“Ah, enthusiasm, one of the great breakers of man,” Grantaire nods, going for sagely and probably only managing to look ridiculous. “I understand.”

“You’ve started a riot?” Feuilly asks (he usually gets Atlases and history books from the library, and brings them back months later).

“No, but I got arrested three times because I was enthusiastic,” —ally drunk. But semantics.

Bahorel laughs, starting from the belly and working its way out of his throat, echoing around the walls and reaching toward the setting sun outside. “I _like_ you! We should go drinking sometime!”

Grantaire shakes his head with a small laugh of his own, “I don’t drink, but I can cause any sort of mayhem you like.”

He looks away from Bahorel to gaze upon Enjolras—as he has done since Greek Classics, as he’s done since he saw him the first time—and he smiles. Just a little.

Enjolras shakes his head slowly, and hides a smile behind his hand.

( **Apollo:** You’re being too likable.

_Oops, my mistake, I’ll just jump into being an ass right away._

**Apollo:** Please do.)


End file.
